Which open source or no-cost/free tools do you use for testing on day to day basis (can you name them)? Which commercial or paid ones?
What are the pros and cons of both of these camps in your personal experience?
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We are probably talking about more than just 3 tool sources , for inspiration go have a look at our tools page Ninja training for software testers | MoT
Free
- LiceCap
- Python
- Linux
- PiOS
- MacOS (you have to pay for the mac itself though)
- Appium
- Selenium
- Chrome plugins like Lighthouse* and SelectorsHub
- ioS network conditioner devtool
- ffmpeg
Paid
- Windows
- Jira & Confluence & BitBucket
- GSM sim card with airtime
- Cellphones and tablets
- Network bandwidth limiter (free linux ones exist, but are a pain to use)
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I would start with extensions in my case - all free:
Chrome -
- BugMagnet - great tool for skeleton strings and buggy data
- Fake Filler - saver of your time during exploration testing
- Check My Links
- Screencastify - great tool for screenrecording and sharing
- Black Menu for Google - extension that has all google common services in you extension bar, accessible on one click
- BlazeMeter
- Json Viewer - to save your eyes from ugly formatted JSON
- Selectors Hub - xpaths and locators problem solver and identifier (fav tool)
Mozilla -
- Screen Recorder - not so great but gets the job done
- Ghostery - ad blocker and anti tracker
Tools -
- Postman
- ScreenToGif - nice little .exe that records screen and makes .gif, great for small step explanation when bug reporting and easy to use.
- Lightshot - in my opinion best screenshot tool
- JMeter
- Vega (Security tool)
- ZAP - Security tool
- MOBSF - Security for mobile apps
- Katalon Studio
- Cypress
- Selenium
Those are mine day-to-day tools I use all the time.
If you need more information about any of them, how to use them, when to use them, feel free to ask me.
Useful online tools -
- TextGen
- Random string generator
- Character counter / Letter Count / Characters Calculator
- Broken Link Checker - Dr. Link Check
- W3C Link checker
- W3C Validator
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Appropriate OS, runtime and input device (on Desktop mostly keyboard and mouse) 
For Web always a browser. 
Multiple monitors for checking monitor related issues (e.g. behavior when disconnecting one, resolution).
A simple text editor, mostly Notepad++, for quick notes. More formal notes I do in our Jira&Confluence and e-mails.
(I just want to make you think what day-to-day things are also tools for testing)
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Thanks. I was also keen to slip into the “everyday” as tools @sebastian_solidwork , because so many tools I use are really free.
- Personally I would love to have a “loan shop” type thing were I can rent a tool for 3 months and then ditch it when my project ends for example. Or even if a tool had roaming licenses, for example just 5 licenses, but shared amongst 50 engineers, and not be forced to pay for 50 seats just to allow read-only access to 45 people… a bit like a library
Free ™
- iCloud : I’m not a fruit-based person, so when I do fruit-based testing, I enable the icloud sync to easily copy test artefacts automatically for me to one place. I guess you could do that for the open-source based devices too but, when unfamiliar with a system, use cheats judiciously
- iNotes: Helpful way to paste steps and commands or even log snippets between computers that share a fruit based account login
- stackoverflow: warning stackoverflow is often wrong or stale, but it’s a good place for clues.
- Notebook: pretty useless without a scribing device though
- Camera-phone: Take pics or a video when you don’t want to armwrestle screenshots, like for example during OS startup or login
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testRigor for testing end-to-end on all browsers including mobile
Also, of course, Jira/Confluence/Github, and a load of security testing tools on top of testRigor itself.
TestNG for unit testing.
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